Sliding doors for cabinets



y 0, 1960 R. H. WILMER ETAL 2,936,206

SLIDING DOORS FOR CABINETS Filed June 17, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet I FIG lllil [NI/EN T 0K5 RUDOLPH H .WI LMER 1 y 1960 R. H. WILMER ET 2,936,206

SLIDING DOORS FOR CABINETS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 17, 1958 F IG. 4.

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INVENTORS RUDOLPH H .WILMER TTORNEY DAVID V. HUFF May 10, 1960 R. H. WILMER ETAL 2,936,206

SLIDING DOORS FOR CABINETS Filed June 17, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG 5.

1 U \LJ Mm RUDOLPH H. WILMER DAVID v. HUFF Un ted States SLIDING DOORS FOR CABINETS Rudolph H. Wilmer, Youngstown, and David V. Huff, Hubbard, Ohio, assignors to The General Fireproofing Company, Youngstown, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application June 17, 1958, Serial No. 742,594

1 Claim. (Cl. 312-322) This invention relates to storage cabinets and more particularly to the type having vertical hinged doors slidable from a position of closure to a storage position within the cabinet itself to open the cabinet for service.

While this general arrangement has been used in the past, particularly in connection with safe cabinets, nevertheless; the means for slidably mounting the doors has involved mountings which are expensive and add substantially to the cost of the cabinet. For example, in many cases the use of racks and gears, and other costly expedients have been resorted to for insuring the proper movement of the doors into the cabinet without rocking, canting or skewing. Structures of this type frequently, due to wear, result in binding of the parts which makes the doors difiicult to operate.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a cabinet having complementary hinged doors intended to close the open end of the cabinet, and wherein either one or both doors may be selectively opened and moved into the cabinet proper, easily and noiselessly, because of the special construction employed. In that connection, the invention contemplates the use of prefabricated parts which may be mounted within the cabinet and assembled with conventional fastening means, to provide upper and lower rail members upon which the doors are free to slide when they are lined up with tracks fitted to said rail members, whereby, the doors may be freely slidably moved within the cabinet.

A further object of the invention is to provide the door carriage and a mounting therefor made from structural shapes which readily render themselves to the use of spaced opposed, inexpensive anti-friction elements, such for example as those shown in the patent to Wilmer et al., Patent No. 2,759,773 for rollers.

With the above and other objects in view which will more readily appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a detail perspective view looking into one corner of the cabinet opening with a door in position to he slid back into the cabinet.

Figure 2 is a top plan view, on a smaller scale of the construction shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the cabinet including doors mounted in accordance with the invention.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 44 of Figure 3 illustrating one of the doors and its carriage partially retracted.

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail horizontal sectional view of one corner of the cabinet showing the door in closed position.

Figure 6 is an enlarged detail vertical sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 5, illustrating the ar- ICC 2 rangement of structural members for slidabl-y' supporting each of the doors.

Figure 7 is a detail perspective view of one of the" anti-friction elements.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.-

The cabinet preferably includes a top A, a bottom B, opposite sides C whose rear end is normally closed while its open front end is provided with the doors D.

As previously indicated these doors are intended" to be" hingedly and slidably mounted to move from a position of closure to a position of storage.

Referring more particularly to Figures 1 5 and 6 the cabinet is provided with the upper and lower struc-' tural members E whose cross-sectional profile'is substantially Z-shape and includes a web 1, a right angularly disposed short inner wall 2 having an offset attaching flange portion 3 secured to the top A.

At the edge of the web 1 opposite the inner wall 2 there is provided an outer wall 4 which is longerftha'n the inner wall and terminates in an inwardlydirected horizontal rail flange 5. It will now be seen that the structural members E may be readily rolled in a conventional manner to provide the cross sectional profile described, and once they are rolled, they may be cut or severed into appropriate relatively short lengths for fitting into the upper and lower portion of the cabinet.

As clearly shown in Figure 6, the structural members B when fitted in the cabinet are disposed in reversely related relation. The structure in both cases is the same.

As will be apparent from Figure 6 the rail flanges 5 have their opposite faces serving as treads for slidably receiving the doors as will presently appear more in detail. At this point it may be also noted that the facing sides of the web 1 are provided with channel shaped tracks which cooperate to form a gmideway to slidably receive the door D. Thus, the structural members E constitutes a base for the rails 5 and channel 6 which completely control the sliding path of the doors D and carrier F.

The doors D may be of any conventional formation, such as that illustrated in the drawings. The rear face of the door is provided with hinge knuckles 7 to receive a pintle 8 which in turn is connected with a hinge leaf 9 secured to said carrier F. This carrier is preferably in the form of an elongated vertical member of substantially box-like cross-section and the upper ends F thereof and the lowers ends F thereof are intended to slide respectively in the related channel 6.

The outer side 10 of the carrier is provided with upper and lower pairs of angle members 11 and 12 whose vertical legs are attached to the carrier and whose horizontal legs 11* and 12 are disposed in spaced parallel relation and at opposite sides of the rail flanges 5. It will thus be understood that when the carrier F is moved into its related channel type tracks 6, the horizontal legs 11 and 12 will substantially embrace the rail flanges 5 to prevent excessive rocking movement of the carrier in the track and also because they are provided on the sides which face the rail flanges 5 with anti-friction glide elements 13, 14 (Figure 7). As shown, the glide elements 13 are mounted on flanges 11 while the glides 14- are mounted on the flanges 12 and in spaced relation.

It will thus be seen that the rail flanges 5 of the members B have opposite sides thereof engaged by the antifriction elements 13 and 14 or rollers and the tolerance is close. Not only does this arrangement insure free sliding of the parts but at the same time provides no room for excessive rocking movement between the carriage F and the tracks 6.

Patented May 10, 1960 From the foregoing it will now be seen that the present invention provides a simple and practical form of construction for mounting the doors with facility in a cabinet to move from'a' closed position to an open position in which they may be slidably moved into the cabinet on the carrier F;

A distinctive feature resides in the provision of the prefabricated rolled structural shapes E which may be readily connected with the top and bottom walls of the cabinet by the flanges 3 while the outer walls 4 have the inturned rail flanges 5. These members, mounted in reversed relation not only provide for slidably mounting the carrier F in a practical and eflicient manner, but at the same time support the carrier F in the channels so that the upper end F and the lower end P thereof is freely andslidably guided in the channels 6 which are also carried by thestructural elements E.

We claim:

A sliding door construction for cabinets having-an opening defined by top, bottom and side walls, comprising, in combination, upper and lower structural shapes respectively suspended from-said top wall and supported by said bottom wall and spaced inwardly of and parallel to said side walls, horizontal inwardly directed rail flanges on said structural shapes, upper and lower facing channels carried by said upper and lower structural members and disposed in vertical registry in a plane inwardly offset of the rail flanges to provide a guideway, a vertically elongated carrier having its upper and lower ends slidable in said guideway and movable back and forth parallel to the related cabinet side wall, upper and lower pairs of angle members having their vertical legs secured to the carrier and their horizontal legs spaced to embrace and slidably receive the rail flanges ofthe structural shapes, and a door hinged to the forward portion of said carrier for movement to and from a storage position in the cabinet. V

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 523,690- Sinclair July 31,1894 840,061 Hofman .Jan. I, 1907, 20 1,088,774 Elliott Mar. 3, 1914 1,099,919 Elliott June 16, 1914 FOREIGN PATENTS France Apr. 7, 1954 

